miles (09/27/82)
From Raymond, Granted, Solar energy would be a neat thing to use to provide power to a colony on the moon because there are factors that make using solar power devices on the moon, more desirable than on earth. But there are many factors which make it undesirable, mainly factors involved with the construction of any solar facilities. There are other power generating sytems, and there are ways of over- coming the difficulties of solar energy. Any such system built would have to be looked at as not just in the short run, but also the systems feasability and usefullness in the long run. Personnally, i think that the only type of colony that would be needed, or feasable on the moon would be some sort of mining colony, if somebody decides to mine the moon for various possible reasons. For an actual living/working colony the "conditions" of building a colony in space rather than on the the moon, or any other planet or moon present a much more desirable picture. Such as cheaper costs, easie r to build, with virtually no restrictions on size or shape giving complete flexibility as to a 'custom built' colony where the builders can design such to their own specs. instead of conforming to some irregular building surface like the moon, which only makes things harder, an boosts costs, building time, etc. Raymond (decvax!utzoo!miles)